Tsukimi
by Ryoga's best friend
Summary: After his eventful trip to Kyoto Negi finds himself sent out on another mission to investigate strange magical readings in Tokyo with Mana Tatsumiya. It's just a simple observation mission, What could possibly go wrong?
1. Chapter 1

Big thanks to Windfalcon and the TFF group for helping me flesh out this idea. Equal thanks to Ikari666 for being an awesome editor. Let's not waste anytime and jump right in!

Tsukimi  
>By Ryoga's best friend <p>

Chapter 1

The countryside crawled past the window while the light rhythm of the tracks beat steadily from below. It was the second train ride in so many weeks for the child teacher known as Negi Springfield. Kyoto was still clear in his mind, a little bodyguarding and a simple package delivery had turned into a desperate fight for the lives of both his precious students and himself... and if not for the timely intervention of Evangeline, he'd have lost. To a mage his own age no less. The fact that so many of his students got wrapped up in the madness weighed heavily on him. Luckily, things turned out well enough and it seemed several members of his class were not as normal as they appeared. He didn't want to be ungrateful, and knowing he had such people to rely on was reassuring in a way... _'But I should be the one to protect them.'_ It was a hard pill to swallow, but he still had a lot of work left to do. He had intended on doing intense training, to be more prepared for next time... So the last thing he was expecting was another mission. Though this mission was to be a bit more subdued...

Hopefully.

"Sensei?"

"Hm, what?" Negi was brought out of his musing as he was joined in his booth.

"I picked up some snacks. Best keep your energy up. We're to be on duty soon." His companion was Mana Tatsumiya, student 18 in his class registry. One of the quieter members of his class, but apparently quiet didn't mean one was what they appeared to be.

"Thank you, Tatsumiya-san." he said, gladly accepting the small snack. Mana took a relaxed position across from him and took slow, small bites out of a protein bar. Negi had been a little surprised to see her arrival alongside Kaede and Ku Fei at the Konoe estate, but he hadn't had all that much time to think about it at the time. It went beyond the fact she was just a strong fighter, because this was not the first time the headmaster had hired Mana. 'Hired.' Though after Ninjas and Vampires, a mercenary really didn't hold the same amount of shock. But the quiet aspect did not disappear with her cover, his student was content to watch the scenery rather then make small talk. His earlier attempts were shot down with ruthless precision. The only time she made to converse with him was if it was mission related, but the crowded train was hardly the best place to speak of such issues.

The Mission. It was pretty straight forward. There had been some strange emanations of ancient magic in the Tokyo area. Mana and he were sent to observe the situation and report on any findings. The headmaster decided that this would make for another test of the young mage, as well as giving him some more field experience in an area that is less magically inclined. _'It should only last a week, maybe two... At least that's what the headmaster said. Until then, Takamichi will be subbing in my place... Hopefully, the girls will behave.'_

~~

"Eh?" A cry of shock and surprise rang through the halls of Mahora Junior High.

"Now, now, everyone calm down." Takahata said, chuckling lightly. "Since Negi is still learning his craft, the Headmaster decided to give Negi-kun a bit more experience in teaching. It's only temporary, but we wanted to give him the chance to teach in a mixed gender setting." The explanation calmed the atmosphere of the room a little bit. Overall, the feeling of the class was one of disappointment, it would be strange without their cute little homeroom teacher around to fluster.

_Sensei... _Nodoka drooped noticeably at the news. After all the craziness in Kyoto, she had so many questions. The diary weighed heavy on her mind. '_But maybe... maybe I can use it to make contact._' __The temptation was great, but reading Negi's mind felt like such an invasion of privacy. Her face reddened at the possible discoveries that could be made... Maybe just a little peek.

Yue frowned, Negi had much to answer for from Kyoto. '_It was magic, I'm sure of it... not that I'd ever seen anything like it before but it's the only explanation.'_ It had been the Baka Leader's intention to corner the boy and get answers straight away but that wouldn't be an option now... Of course, there were others who were mixed up in this mess.

"Sensei?" A few eyes turned to Makie as she raised her hand with tears in her eyes from Negi's departure. "Where was Negi-kun sent? Will he be okay away from us?"

Looking up at Makie, Takahata considered the question, before giving a slight shrug. "He was sent to a public middle school in Tokyo. The Juuban District, if I recall correctly. The Headmaster is friends with their Principal, so it was the best place to send him." Chuckling a bit at the worried faces a few of the gathered students had, Takahata made a calming gesture with his hands. "There, there... Don't worry too much everyone. He'll be perfectly fine there, and in his absence, I'll be taking over as your substitute."

Haruna blinked at a clatter to her side, her desk mate, Zazie, dropped the eraser and pencil box she was juggling when Takahata mentioned 'Juuban'. Though her face was blank she gave an oddly tense impression. Curious... Of course, before she could think of it further, the Class Rep, Ayaka, slammed her hand against the table, an angry look on her face. "Sensei! How can you be so calm? Haven't you heard the rumors? Tokyo is the _worst_ place you could have sent my poor Negi-sensei! What if there's gangsters? Or car accidents? Or evil women?" This got some of the class started on the kinds of 'bad' things that could happen to Negi in humorous ways.

Settled in the back of the class, Evangeline snorted. A farce of a cover story. If the boy had still needed training, they wouldn't have instated him as a teacher, but it was flimsy enough to deal with these idiots. It was at least enough that no connection was made to the mercenary's 'family reunion' excuse. '_Admittedly it's going to be a bit more dull without the boya around.'_ Not that she'd ever admit that aloud. This news had already started having an effect; Chachamaru had been going about her duties at a noticeably slower pace since she had heard the day before. '_You better come back soon kid._' At Ayaka's list, Evangeline could only snort and shake her head. _'If the boya could be taken down by such mundane things... he wouldn't be interesting at all.'_

Asuna sighed softly, she knew what was coming. As soon as class was over, She and Konoka were going to be mobbed with people looking for information. Even when the brat wasn't around, he caused her trouble. But at least Negi wasn't going to Juuban alone; if that battle in Kyoto showed anything, it was that Negi was in good hands. '_And we have Takahata-sensei teaching again!'_ That warmed things up considerably. He was a REAL man... And the school wouldn't have sent Negi to a dangerous place. It was only Tokyo. If it was important, she would have gone too.

... Of course, only Konoka knew that she had repeated the last part to herself so many times it became her personal mantra...

Among those few that were more relaxed was Kaede Nagase. She barely looked phased at the mention of Negi's reassignment, or the supposed 'dangers' in Juuban. Instead, she just smiled her lazy smile and paid attention in class. '_Soon...'_

~~

Next stop: Juuban

"This is it." Mana's sudden voice almost made the boy jump. He must have been zoning out. With hardly a word between them, they began to get their luggage together. Light muffled grumbles could be heard from Chamo, the trip had not been easy on the ermine.

"Just a little further Chamo-kun." Negi whispered as the train screeched to a stop. "Tatsumiya-san?"

"Yes?"

"Is the apartment far from the train station?"

"Hm, if I recall correctly it's a bit of a walk but not so much that it can't be done."

"Well, I mean could we hail a cab?"

"No." Mana's voice snapped like a whip. "We have a stipend to last us two weeks, no need to spend frivolously. There is nothing wrong with walking." Her voice was firm and gaze intense, melting away any objections.

"R-Right..." Negi sighed softly. It looked like Chamo was going to have to tough it out a little longer. The train pulled to a stop, much of the assembled passengers heading out into the station. Shifting his backpack, he followed along behind the steady strides of his student, blinking as they came out and onto the street. "Whoa..." The city was huge, the streets and sidewalks were packed with a great amount of hustle and bustle.

"This is your first time in Tokyo?" He managed to shake off some of the awe to turn his attention up to Mana. The stoic girl bore a faint smile, the first he'd seen the whole trip. '_Best not pass this opportunity up.'_

"Uh yes, I haven't gotten to travel as much as I would have liked."

"Well, you _are_ very busy with your work."

"Ha ha, yeah. So, do you come here often?"

"Hm... Not as often as in the past. My work keeps me busy, coupled with school of course." Mana kept her answer somewhat vague. With that, the pair began to move through the streets.

"Oh, right, so are you going to be going to school with me?"

"No, I believe I can trust you with monitoring that area."

"Huh?" Negi frowned. "Then what are you doing for classes?"

"I'm not."

"You're still in school."

"It's only for a short time. I can keep my grades up well enough." Mana was a little taken aback at the boy's sudden firmness. Though, in hindsight, she really should have expected this. "This isn't the first time I've taken a mission like this."

"That doesn't excuse it. I'll have to arrange some one-on-one lessons." At this point the boy was making notes to himself. His tutoring skills had grown with all the work he had put in helping the Bakas.

"With all due respect, Negi-sensei." she said with a small strain in her tone. "We are here on business. We must keep alert and observant."

"Well, there will be down time between watches and I don't see why a simple study session or two will throw things off." Negi may have been intimidated by Mana's fierce nature, but on an issue related to teaching his students he would not budge. Mana repressed the urge to sigh and let the matter drop. '_Hopefully with the work involved in the mission and the boy's cover, this 'study session' nonsense will get lost in the confusion.'_

Conversation quieted from there on, the pair working their way through the city. Occasionally, Negi would need to stop and take in a sight or if something new caught the boy's eye. Mana gave some leniency in the mini tourism baring a ghost of a smile. Eventually, the pair made it to an apartment building and proceeded up to the topmost floor. All the arrangements had been made ahead of time. It was just a matter of using the key that came along with the directions.

"So this is one of Takamichi's places?" Negi questioned, mostly for conversation.

"Apparently. He must use this when he is on mission in Tokyo." Mana replied, opening the door. It was a nice apartment, lightly furnished with the basics that would be needed. There was a small bookcase with a choice of books and a few small plants hung by the windows. An envelope sat on the coffee table. The mercenary made a beeline for the sofa while Negi took a moment to undo his pack.

"There, it's safe to come out now."

"Keh, it's about damn time." Chamo popped his head out with a sigh of relief.

"Sorry, Chamo-kun but you didn't want to go in a carrier in the baggage car, right?"

"Hmph! Fair enough." The ermine slid free of his canvas prison and stretched. "I'm so stiff."

"Negi-sensei, it seems Takahata-sensei left us more detailed instructions."

"Oh?" Negi stood, Chamo retaking his usual perch on the boys shoulders mid way. Taking a seat next to his student, a map spread out over the coffee table marked with the locations of supernatural activity... There was two kinds of unknown magic at work. An underground battle. The Dark aligned magic would set up shop somewhere in the city, and then within a few days the other magic would flare up and snuff out the first.

"Hm, wow, some of these readings are quite high." Negi muttered, looking over one of the associated information sheets.

"Indeed... And there is little pattern where the dark energy begins to show itself."

"Well, not a pattern for placement, exactly, But wherever it sets up, people began to flock there." Negi pointed out, feeling Mana lean over to look at that information.

"Interesting... I guess until some manner of placement pattern opens then the best lead is to follow 'fads'." Mana frowned slightly. "Trying to find and trace a fad in Tokyo is hardly straight forward. But it's not like there's much else to go on." She turned back to the map, eying the marks. A jewelry store, a gym, a radio station and a theater... Aside from the radio station, they were all stationary set ups which implied that it took time to set up these collections of dark energy. They also had to have some manner of attracting the necessary victims. "Hm..."

"Oi, Aniki! Don't you have to stop by that school today?"

"Oh, right." The child teacher glanced to clock. He still had plenty of time to prepare, but he had to include travel and potential issues of directions.

"True, though you don't need to interview it's best to make a good first impression." Mana didn't look up from her work. "You'd best clean yourself up."

"But, Tatsumiya-san... I bathed this morning." Negi muttered in a rare moment of childishness. He flinched under the even glance of his companion. The girl had a look that could pierce granite. "Okay," he conceded, slinking off to the bathroom after fishing out his supplies.

"I will be checking your work." She could barely make out a muffled groan on the other side of the door. It was easy to forget sometimes he was still a child when he so rarely let it through. '_But some of us are forced to grow up fast.'_ "Konoe-san warned me well it seems..."

As Mana kept her focus on the paper work, Chamo returned to Negi's backpack and fished out a separately packed bundle. The ermine stumbled as he pulled the weighty sack free, a barely repressed grin on his face. "Heh, let's see if Takamichi kept up on his side." The familiar shifted the weight to a more comfortable position and scampered off to the bedroom.

Negi exited the bathroom a few minutes later, towel wrapped around his waist as he sped quickly to the bedroom with a slight blush. Mana gained a slight smirk at the antics. '_In the dorm, baths were hardly safe for him after all, so a little paranoia was understandable. Not that he has anything to worry about here, I'm not into kids.'_ Placing the information packet down, she tuned into the muffled conversation between Mage and Familiar. She held some doubts on Negi's part of the plan, there were many distinctive features to the boy that made him poor for undercover work. A ten year old teaching middle school is not exactly great for going unnoticed... but the headmaster insisted so there was no doubt arrangements had already been made.

"Hm...Looks like I will end up doing the bulk of the patrolling, though I can't say I wasn't expecting it." The mercenary began to crunch numbers, figuring out how to set up her time properly. It wouldn't be easy but with so little to go on there was little choice in the matter.

"Oi, Ane-san." Mana glanced over to Chamo's furry head peeking over the armrest. "We need a woman's opinion, make sure we've got it right."

"Very well." She stood and followed the ermine along, curiosity growing. If the boy was trying something more out of the norm for him, maybe there was some hope. She swung open the door and blinked, spotting an unfamiliar boy. Her hand immediately sped for her shoulder holster.

"Oh, hello, Tastumiya-san."

"No! Don't shoot, it's Aniki!" Chamo panicked, he was hoping to give the stoic girl a little surprise, but such reflexes could be dangerous. Her hand rested on the grip but she never drew the gun. Negi sweated as her gaze traveled steadily up and down. The once Child teacher was about even with her own height, perhaps an inch or so taller. A slim frame was dressed in a nice, if somewhat old, suit. His expression nervous but his face had matured, loosing much of the baby fat going from cute to a more handsome face.

"Age deceiving pills..." she finally said, relaxing her grip and allowing the now teen Negi to let go of the breath he was holding.

"Um yes, Chamo-kun picked them up for me. Both the headmaster and Takamichi believed my cover at the school would work better with an older body."

"I see." Mana crossed her arms, "You'd do well to keep me informed next time Sensei, Chamo... I don't take well to surprises." Her tone was collected and dead serious. "Am I Understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" Mage and familiar said in unison. Negi even went so far as to salute.

"Good." Mana regained her usual neutral look and gave Negi another once over. "That's a good look, I venture that that is one of Takahata's older outfits?"

"Ha ha, yeah. He wanted to get my sizes before the mission and, though these are a little big, they are comfortable," Negi replied. He reached for his staff only to see a shake of his companions head. "Huh?"

"You shouldn't carry that around with you in that form. It's too conspicuous." Mana's serious tone gained a slight hint of amusement. "Besides, it doesn't go with that outfit at all."

"It doesn't?" Negi frowned looking to his suit. '_It is Father's staff. It should go with anything.'_ "What should I do about casting then?"

"The simple answer would be don't, having a wand with you would make you more tempted to use it should things go south, but it would break your cover. Unlike Mahora, there aren't any elder mages around to take care of any mess-ups." Mana started out firm but softened toward the end. "But considering we have little idea what we're dealing with, it would be best to be armed... try to pick a small wand, something easy to conceal."

"Right." He looked to his familiar, "Please keep an eye on my staff well I'm gone."

"No problem." The ermine replied with an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

"I'll be back later this afternoon after the orientation, Tatsumiya-san."

"Right, I'll be doing a little patrolling myself. I'll be back before dark." Her gaze followed the teen as he headed back into the living room to look for a suitable replacement. '_Maybe Kakizaki has something to that "reverse Hikaru Genji" plan...'_ She turned her gaze away before it lingered too long, focusing on her other roommate of sorts. "So ermine-kun. What kind of supply of those pills did you secure?"

"Heh," the ermine smirked as he hopped on top of the bureau, pulling out a large jar of red and blue pills. "I picked up the Jumbo Assorted Jar. These babies have all sorts of uses."

"So many." The frugal mercenary blinked in surprise. "That must have cost a fortune."

"Nah, not when you know the right people." Chamo pulled out a cigarette and lit it with a proud grin. "It's all about who you know, Ane-san." He exhaled a small puff of smoke which didn't bother the girl one bit. The corners of her mouth twitched up ever so slightly.

"That it is..." Perhaps there could be a little unexpected bonus in this mission after all.

AN – Well so begins yet another crossover from me. This was in idea I had a while back when brainstorming with my fellow author Windfalcon on different ways to cross series. It really appealed to me as a different way to present a cross and a chance to flesh out Mana, one of the more mysterious members of 3-A. This story will be entirely from the POV of the Negima characters, at least for a while, as they figure out whats going on.

Tsukimi means Moon Watching ^_^ 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"I really do thank you for coming Mr. Springfield. Though you are younger than I expected I don't doubt Konoe-san's judgment. To be a middle school teacher at your age, in a prestigious school like Mahora, you must be quite well learned." The principal of Juuban middle school had been laying praise thick since the mage's arrival. It was getting quite embarrassing.

"Not at all, Yamoto-san. I'm just glad I can help."

"For that, I am thankful. The situation with Sakurada-san was really growing complicated. We couldn't find anyone able to fill in for her leave. But it needed to be done, considering her poor condition as of late." The older man nodded solemnly.

"I hope it's not too serious?"

"Well, no one is quite sure exactly, she has fainted and been hospitalized with alarming frequency as of late. The doctors say it's due to exhaustion. They believe a bug of some sort might be going around as many people have come in feeling tired." Negi's eyes widened slightly but he made no comment, setting that information aside for later. "She has soldiered on but we insisted she take some time off to recover." They stopped next to the faculty room. "Sakurada-san should be waiting for you inside. She just finished her last class. She will give you a run down on the lesson plan as well as her students. I wish you luck Springfield-san."

"Right, I won't let you down." With a firm shake of hands the principal headed back to his office. The mage had to admit the set up was working quite well, considering how surprised people had been thus far with his false age. It looked like it was for the best he didn't come in his natural form. Negi took a breath and headed inside. It wasn't all that different than the teacher's office back at Mahora, all of the teachers' desks spaced at small intervals in various states of organization. Over in the break area, a young woman stood. A look of excitement morphed slowly into confusion as she stared at him. "Um... Haruna Sakurada-san?" he ventured with a smile, but it comforted her some. She gave a dazed nod.

"And you... are Nagi springfield?"

"Yes, pleased to meet you Sakurada-san."

"I was expecting you to be older... I mean, I heard you were young but..." She sighed deeply, to the confusion of the mage.

"Um, are you feeling okay?"

"Oh yes, sorry. Don't mind me." She gave a forced smile. "Well…

Shall we go?" she asked, making to leave the lounge.

'_It __must __be __the__ after __effects __of__ that __dark__ magic...__'_ Negi thought to himself as he followed after.

1234321

Mana scanned the landscape from a rooftop perch. The citizens milled about below going about their daily lives. They were unaware of the secret war going on under their noses. Missions in major population centers, where so much of the populace was non-magical, were always the most bothersome. There we so many factors one had to keep in mind at all times, especially with when your backup was less experienced. The mercenary sighed, cutting off that train of thought before it became counterproductive. "How is the progress?" She had to wait a moment before the reply came in through her headset.

"Looking good, Ane-san. With this node, our detection range should be boosted a good deal." The ermine's voice wasn't nearly as grating once you got used to it. The usefulness of his contacts in the ermine network as well as his diverse skill set was a pleasant surprise. "I don't know why they don't keep these active, though. Ya'd think the council would wanna know when stuff was going down in a major city."

"Efficiency is often at odds with politics." Mana replied, if only to let her mind focus on a different topic. "Konoe-san doesn't have the pull to keep the full grid on at all times, the other organization have enough to fuss about as it is. But in a situation like this, things get simplified."

"True enough, I guess."

Chamo's reply was accompanied by some muttering on his side that she couldn't pick up. Even if she knew the reasons, she also didn't see the reason for all the tip toeing. Though, Mana had always been one for more direct resolutions.

"Almost done. Huh? What the hell?"

"Chamo? Is something coming up?" The ermine had gone silent for a moment. She tensed in anticipation.

"I got something coming up, but it's pretty vague. It's not zeroing in enough to get a clear reading."

"Pass on the general area and I'll do a sweep. I'll be able to get a better feel when I'm closer." Her commanding tone got Chamo jumping to action. The area wasn't far. She gathered up her duffle bag and began to take the rooftop route, cutting the distance to her target.

"I'll contact Aniki so he can meet you en rou-"

"Don't bother, I only plan to observe. I'll only engage if I absolutely have to."

"...If you say so." He sounded anxious but complied. Mana remained focused on her goal, stretching her senses out on the approach.

The blip appeared to be coming from one of Tokyo's many business districts. From her rooftop perch, she could hardly identify the purposes of the nearby buildings, much less what was inside them. Fortunately, she had more than just her eyes to help her. She took a moment to focus her gift, the demon's eye. She extended her senses out in all directions filtering out the mundane life force of the civilian populace... It made the unusual energy stand out like a signal flare. "Found it." She turned and hopped to an adjacent roof, "The energy is coming from a building slightly south of my location... Crystal Seminar, some kind of cram school." she continued to report as she settled on the edge of the roof.

"Realigning the node... got it. That's it, alright." Chamo affirmed. He was already recording any kind of information the device could pick up.

"This energy... it's vile." It was a distinctive feeling to be sure, it felt darker than any necromantic or demon magic she'd ever felt. "I feel unclean." she muttered as she pulled out her binoculars and began to scan up from the bottom trying to pinpoint the exact location among the general miasma. Another energy surged. Lights flickering on the third floor caught her eye.

"Wait, I'm getting another blip... It's the other energy!"

"Yeah, I feel it too." she relayed, still pushing out with her senses. This one was different, just as hard to place but felt much the opposite of the dark energy. "Getting a visual." She scanned across the third floor as a counter surge of dark magic hit. This time she had it narrowed down to a classroom. "There's a red humanoid, could be demonfolk in nature but I'm not sure. It has a hostage, the room is full of civilians but they aren't reacting to the monster."

"Some kind of spell?"

"Likely. There is one other girl that doesn't seem effected, dressed in some kind of cosplay. I think she's... posing." Even as the words left her mouth she could hardly believe it herself.

"What?" Chamo didn't sound much less puzzled.

"Your guess is as good as mine." The monster was apparently not impressed and began shooting some kind of projectiles at the girl. The way they embedded into the walls belied their paper-like appearance. "Blondie is going to get herself killed, I'm engaging." With practiced ease, she put away her binoculars and swung the shoulder bag to easy reach. With a thought, she also negated her demon eye, so she could focus more clearly on the task at hand.

"W-Woah, this is an observation mission!" The ermine had clear panic in his voice. "At least let me call Aniki and get you some back up."

"We don't have that kind of time, Chamo." She put her rifle together with expert precision and was in a crouched shooting position before most soldiers would have gotten half way. The view from her scope cemented her decision. The once passive civilians were shambling toward the blond, while the red monster had armed itself with an ax. "I'm taking the shot." she said, flipping off the safety.Her finger pressed lightly on the trigger. She was drawing a deep breath when her something flared in her senses. She jumped back to avoid several projectiles that struck her firing position. Looking for its source, she saw a man on the adjacent rooftop dressed in a tuxedo, face half concealed with a domino mask.

"Another agent? You don't quite feel like the others..." the man said clearly, "But there's definitely a dark energy coming from you. With that in mind, I can't let you interfere." A trio of roses appeared between his fingers. "State your business."

"Sorry, that's classified." Mana replied calmly placing the long range rifle down in favor of pulling her pistols free from their shoulder holsters.

"Ane-san? What's going on?" Chamo squawked in her earpiece but she could hardly spare much thought to reply.

"Sorry, looks like I'm going to be busy..."

"How much further?"

"Three blocks over from your current position." Chamo had wasted little time in alerting Negi to the situation. He managed to excuse himself from the remainder of the orientation without too much trouble. Fortunately, the confrontation wasn't too far from the campus. At least, not for a wind mage who could passively increase his speed.

"So Mana is fighting one of the darkness monsters?" Negi turned into an alley to cut off a few more precious seconds.

"I think so, she mentioned some kind of big red demon thing..." Suddenly the compact wand in his hand seemed all the more puny. He missed his staff already. "Just ahead Aniki, across the street."

"Right." He reached to take hold of the wand but stopped as her saw someone crossing the end of the alley he was about to exit. Eyes widening, he canceled his speed spell. The focused air dispersed in all directions. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to stop all his momentum. Negi exited the alley with a rush of wind colliding with someone, but he managed to catch both them and himself from falling into traffic. The wind died down after a moment and he stepped back. "Sorry about that, wasn't watching where I was going." he said with a small bow.

"I-It's okay." The victim was a girl with short cropped blue hair. She spoke softly a little red in the face. It was understandable, given her surprise.

"Ami!" Another girl came from behind him, blond with long streaming ponytails. They made him think of back home. Most odd was a black cat of all things trailing at the girl's heels.

"I'm fine, really." she assured her friend.

"She's on the move, Aniki! She's heading further east across the rooftops!" Chamo's urgent tone brought the matter at hand back into focus.

"Pardon me, girls. But I'm still in a hurry." Negi said politely, tracing a bow before taking off once again. He eyed the traffic and cross quickly before jumping into the nearest alley.

'_He's__good.__'_Mana noted as she was forced to hop backward and put some distance between herself and the masked man. He appeared to be human but was definitely using some kind of magic to augment his body. His strength, speed and agility were definitely beyond human. From what she could see he was most dangerous up close when fighting with his cane. She was confident with her close-quarters skills but bruise on her abdomen told her to keep things at her strengths. He was accurate with his roses and they flew like daggers but he used them more for distraction. They had some manner of purification effect on them similar to Shinto seals, so they were likely more dangerous to the darkness beings. To her diluted demon ancestry, they stung like hell.

His next strafing run was cut off by a counter offensive flurry of bullets. She knew a few of those shots found their mark, but the man didn't show any reaction. They may have only been rubber, but a solid hit with one of those enchanted slugs should have been enough to drop your average adult male. If they were non-magical, of course.

"These bullets aren't cheap you know?" she stated conversationally, keeping a close eye on her opponent.

"You're firing them freely enough." he replied in a similar measured tone.

"It's not like you've been giving me much choice in the matter." They were at a stalemate. He was far enough away to dodge most of her shots and she wouldn't let him get into close combat.

"Ras tel Ma Scir Magister," was all the warning either fighter got as streams of white shot out from the gap between two buildings behind Mana. "Seven arrows of wind, bind my enemy!" The masked man hesitated a moment before backpedaling rapidly batting the projectiles with his cane to disperse them, He barely escaped the surprise assault.

"So, reinforcements have arrived. I guess this is where I bow out. I suggest you don't meddle in the affairs of the Sailor Senshi again.Good day." With a bow and a cascade of rose petals, the masked man vanished. Mana lowered her guns, clicking her tongue in annoyance. He likely could have escaped at any time.

"Mana, are you okay?" She turned to see Negi pulling himself up onto the roof, concern first and foremost on his mind.

"I'm fine, Just a few scratches and bruises." she holstered her pistols and offered him a hand up. She gave her sensei an appraising look, noting his disheveled appearance. "You didn't have to rush out here, I was handling things."

"But, Mana I-"

"But thank you," Her words cut off his argument leaving him puzzled. She left him that way as she moved through the dueling field, plucking one of the discarded roses from where it had embedded itself. Not a moment after it was free, it dissolved into petals that disappeared into the ether shortly after. "Magic constructs. Makes sense." She ignored the others and made her way back to her discarded rifle and set to disassembling it for travel once more. She gave a look to Negi who was knelt by a small cluster of the roses carefully pulling one and watching its disintegration process closely. Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her. "Sensei, what are you doing?"

"Testing a theory." he said in a distracted tone, muttering a spell. A white arrow of wind appeared but he managed to hold it from launching. He reached for another rose. This time, as it started to dissolve the arrow circled the falling petals as if trying to corral them. The petals all vanished but took notably longer. "Close... looks like I need more. Ras tel Ma Scir Magister..." Mana raised an eyebrow, using one of the most common mage attack spells for such a use. It spoke volumes for his control. It took two more attempts but with five arrows of wind Negi had managed to 'bind' the energy to keep it from dissipating, the magic petals swirling about the orb of wind like a snow globe. "Now, we have some evidence." he announced proudly.

"So it would seem." she muttered, allowing a note of praise into her voice, watching the swirling petals. "I don't suppose you could store that more permanently?" His earlier confidence fell into a sheepish grin.

"Ah, I'm not sure... not without knowing how this energy behaves on containment. It could be volatile," he cautioned. "But I should be able to keep this going until we get back to the apartment."

"A little conspicuous." Mana said with a frown, "But it will have to do." She stowed the pieces of her rifle carefully into their places and zipped the bag up. Shouldering the bag she meandered over to the edge of the roof looking to the Crystal Seminar building. The last of the confused and exhausted students were shambling out. "But one stop first."

"Hm?"

"More evidence."

It didn't take too long to find the third floor classroom where the battle had taken place. Even easier considering the rest of the rooms were empty. Curiosity had prompted a glance into the other classrooms, but it only proved that there were none. The rest of the building was completely deserted, but the halls were designed to make it appear as if the whole building was an active school. It only added more questions to the situation.

The classroom was in disarray but surprisingly intact all things considered. The room held a strong chill, a noticeable drop even from just coming in from the hall. Most of the surfaces were wet, as if they had been left outside and subject to morning dew.

"So what are we looking for?" Negi asked as her ran a finger over the slits in the wall where the paper projectiles had connected.

"Something preferably connected to the dark energy." Mana scanned the room with a careful eye. There seemed to be no physical evidence to the fight, not even a body. She had missed the conclusion of the fight due to the masked man's interruption but it looked as though the girl had won. "I will check on a deeper level." She said mostly for his Sensei's convenience as she took a deep breath and activated her demons eye. She frowned a bit taking the view of the once empty room now a chaotic mess of ambient energy.

"Tatsumiya-san, your eye..." Mana passed her sensei a glance, it seemed he had not been briefed much on her skills. Or at least not her background. It was just as well. Knowledge was power after all and she did her best to keep any about herself to a minimum. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine sensei, Just sorting things out." The light and dark energies hovered about in the air negating each other whenever they came in contact. She looked back to the disguised magister-in-training who, to her current view, was a beacon of focused energy. He orb in his hand glowed softly, matching the ambient light magic. "We'll need to be careful, the two energies seem quite opposed... we might lose the sample we have if any dark energy gets into that seal."

"I'll stand back then." He seemed to have recovered nicely from his confusion and took her opinion without question.

"Good," She turned back to the battlezone and searched for a high concentration of dark energy. Row by row she worked her way through until she found a broken monitor. The dark energy was dissipating but the heaviest concentration was at this terminal. With great reluctance she stepped forward into the miasma, repressing a shudder as the vile energy swirled in the air around her. She ignored the urge to negate her demon eye and focused her attention to the monitor and tower. Many of the other computers had trace amounts of energy but the larger cloud here had kept the computer insulated from the roaming light energy. Out of curiosity she began pushing buttons on the tower. Eventually, a purple floppy disk popped halfway out. The disk had an intense aura of dark energy but was already lessening after being ejected. Remembering the roses from the roof, she looked to Negi.

"Sensei, collect this disk." She deactivated her ability and was thankful to leave the oppressive feeling of the ambient magic behind her. "But try to keep the petals out of this workstation." she added quickly. The boy nodded and started over.

"Right," he drew his wand with his free hand softly casting his wind arrows but holding the five missiles in a circle around his wand hand. He blinked and looked to his other hand, still holding the swirling petal orb. His face flushed slightly. "Uh, can you hold my wand?" he muttered. Her small smirk didn't help his embarrassment. She plucked the wand from his hand. The arrows wavered, about to shoot off but he managed to hold them in place. Negi tentatively reached out and touched the disk, the arrows inching forward to encircle it as he pulled it from the machine. Unlike the rose it held its shape just fine. "You sure this is the one?" he said stepping back and looking between the two items.

"Reasonably. Just keep those things form touching." Mana cautioned, "Let's not waste anymore time." He returned that sentiment with a nod and started toward the door and stopped.

"Er..." He looked to his occupied hands.

"I'll get the doors."

The walk back was a bit awkward, but aside from a few odd looks, they made it back with both samples intact. Chamo and Negi immediately got to work getting what information they could from the samples before making any attempt to preserve them. Mana took the downtime to write up a formal report of the incident. It was a good way for the mercenary to mentally unwind after what turned into a chaotic first day in Tokyo. Well, it should have been.

"Something wrong Tatsumiya-san?"

"I can't seem to remember the girl..."

"Girl?"

"The one that was fighting the monster."

"The blond?" Chamo chimed in from behind his computer.

"Blond?" Mana frowned, the more she tried to place the appearance the less sure she was. "Did I say she was blond?" The ermine's nod only furthered her confusion.

"Is there anything else you can't remember?" Negi looked up from the readouts with a curious expression. She began to work through the events looking for inconsistencies. Strangely, all of the events before and after the girl in question were clear and concise. Until she reached, "The masked man." she said firmly. "I can remember the fight and even how he fought but I can't place anything about him outside his mask and the tuxedo. Not even his height or hair color..."

"Sounds like some kind of Glamour or defensive enchantment to hide their identities." the mage recited with reasonable confidence. "I suppose it's hard to keep a low profile otherwise if you're hunting monsters..."

"Is there some way to counteract this?" Being unable to identify your targets would make keeping an eye on them unnecessarily complicated.

"Enchantment isn't really my specialty, but I can look into it. Generally, the only way is to dispel whatever is causing the effect." It was an unexpected hurdle to the mission for sure. They'd just have to report what they could. With that in mind, Mana went back to the report.

"Okay, Aniki, that should do it." Chamo grinned over the top of the monitor. "This data should really help our early warning system."

"Good," Negi sighed rolling his shoulders. He was starting to get stiff. "Think we can try to find some place to store these? We'll need something magically shielded." he asked hopefully. His familiar looked thoughtful.

"Oh! I got it! One sec." The ermine hopped off, returning shortly with the jar of age pills. "This is shielded to get through customs so it might work, just let me get a bowl to pour these out. Negi did his best to keep patient while Chamo carefully poured the jar of candy colored pills into a bowl, a few strays rolling over and across the floor. "Here you go." He placed the bottle in front of the mage, stopper held closely in paw.

"Right." Negi took a breath and carefully turned his hand over, the orb of air continuing to stick to his palm. With a moment of hesitation he canceled the arrows, allowing the petals to fall, a few immediately dissipating. Chamo slammed the stopper back into place. With nowhere to escape, the remaining four petals settled at the bottom of the jar and remained. Both mage and familiar gave a sigh of relief.

"All right, mission successful." Chamo said cheerfully, "Now what to do for the other one..."

"Well, maybe Takamichi has some kind of stor- Gah!" The young man exploded into white smoke mid-sentence. In his place, remained a ten-year-old child in an oversized suit. Concentration broken, the disk fell to the floor. Any magic feeling attached to it faded along with its purple color. "After all that..." Negi sighed head drooping.

"It's just as well." Negi looked up to see Mana's usual impassive gaze. "We'll have more chances to get get samples... Though we will need a more immediate way to store them."

"I'll see what I can do on that end." Chamo said with a mock salute.

"Good." She looked to her Sensei. "You should probably change into something more fitting."

"Oh, ah, right." The child teacher flushed and gathered the clothes as best he could and headed to the bedroom. Mana shook her head at him, but it was hard not to feel a sense of accomplishment looking at the magic petals sitting in the jar. Despite the rough patches, the first incident had gone better than she expected, and her young partner had done more than enough to justify the headmaster's appointment for the mission.Though, hopefully not every day will end up as an incident; at this pace, this operation might not be marked as an observation mission for much longer...

AN – It feels weird to write Sailor moon again... one of my first fics was a Sailor moon cross (don't try to look for it it's no longer on this site...and it's pretty bad). But I think framing the show in the view of a different prospective (Negima) really helped me think of what could happen. I have some fun ideas for a little later on with Mana that I think you'll find interesting... stay tuned :)


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